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Yea it's a pretty recent addition to the game and made me double take as well. It's more of an end-game tax if anything as it takes a while before your character even has enough leveled skills to seriously consider needing a second bar, but nevertheless a P2W addition.

Ara Haan is probably my new favorite character to chain combos with. Talk about smooth cancellations and fast cast action skills to cancel and restart combos. Unfortunately it seems I can't say much more about the playsession until Tuesday morning.

Thanks for clearing that up on the bar. I don't have a problem buying it. However, my friends who I play MMOs with don't spend on games and are too stubborn to let me buy them anything, so they refuse to play p2w games on the first sight. A game is nothing without my friends.

Actually, the A/B skill bar system (where you have to pay for the B skill bar) is no recent addition. It's been there since the launch of the game in March 2011. It's also not just "convenience". Some classes pretty much absolutely requires the second skill bar or they can't perform at their max potential. And obviously, in PvP, it's advantageous to have a more versatile skillset.

However, the whole "pay for the second skillbar" thing is only the tip of this pay-to-win iceberg:
-Costumes have pretty hefty potential stats since they have slots. These slots all add up to provide you with around 20% of damage-centric stats (e.g. attack speed, Critical). But to be fair, they do occasionally have events that give free costume pieces (usually weapon, which is up to 6% of that 20%). Of course, the ones from cash shop are better, some of them have set effects.
-Also, there are "rare" costumes that come out of RNG/gachapon/boxes which give greater effects + set effects. These rare costume weapons give 2 slots (so up to 12% extra attack-stats, instead of 6% for regular weapon costumes).
-Always running out of MP? There's the Mana Necklace from the Cash shop that will increase your mana gain rate by 30%!
-Skills not dealing enough damage? You can increase skill levels by using Skill Rings and add skill damage/effects using Skill Notes. Exclusive at the cash shop.
-Want to be a PvE hero? There are pets that help help you in combat (usable in PvE only though). They deal around the damage of a 100MP skill. Also, when you hit a low HP threshold, they will heal you (40% of max HP) and refill your MP bar (around 300MP). The hp heal is extremely powerful, since there is no dedicated healer class in this game. The game does provide you with a free pet in the early levels, but obviously, it's nowhere as good as the cash shop ones.

And then of course, the crowd favorite:
-Come on in and enchant! Test your luck!
The regular max enchant level is +10 (+11 is through special enchanting events)
Enchantments past +6 have a chance to break your weapon (renders it unequippable; requires $7.50 cash shop "scroll" to unbreak it) or reset it back to 0 (prevented only if you use $1.50 cash shop "ore" to enchant EVERY TIME).
You can get +8 through ingame methods, but the +8 amulet is a rare RNG item, and pretty expensive to buy from other players.
+7 is usually where the average player is at.
You have a 1% chance of enchanting +9 to +10, and 30% chance of breaking. Statistically, it would take you about $400 dollars to make that gap alone.
Difference between +7 and +10 is about 50% more damage.
They will occasionally give out ores OR scrolls (rarely both) during events, that expire after the event is over. Of course, that's to entice you to buy the other to spam "free" enchants.

And inb4 "you can buy everything with ingame currency": economy is so borked up. Unless you live to merchant and/or get lucky with drops, you'd be mindlessly farming at about $1-2's worth of gold per hour.

As for me, I was enjoying the game until a few months back, until I realized the choice to progression was either "farm these boring dungeons for 10 hours" or "drop the $10 from one hour of minimum wage".

Any f2p MMORPG with business sense will strive to make you choose the 2nd option.

Actually, the A/B skill bar system (where you have to pay for the B skill bar) is no recent addition. It's been there since the launch of the game in March 2011. It's also not just "convenience". Some classes pretty much absolutely requires the second skill bar or they can't perform at their max potential. And obviously, in PvP, it's advantageous to have a more versatile skillset.

However, the whole "pay for the second skillbar" thing is only the tip of this pay-to-win iceberg:
-Costumes have pretty hefty potential stats since they have slots. These slots all add up to provide you with around 20% of damage-centric stats (e.g. attack speed, Critical). But to be fair, they do occasionally have events that give free costume pieces (usually weapon, which is up to 6% of that 20%). Of course, the ones from cash shop are better, some of them have set effects.
-Also, there are "rare" costumes that come out of RNG/gachapon/boxes which give greater effects + set effects. These rare costume weapons give 2 slots (so up to 12% extra attack-stats, instead of 6% for regular weapon costumes).
-Always running out of MP? There's the Mana Necklace from the Cash shop that will increase your mana gain rate by 30%!
-Skills not dealing enough damage? You can increase skill levels by using Skill Rings and add skill damage/effects using Skill Notes. Exclusive at the cash shop.
-Want to be a PvE hero? There are pets that help help you in combat (usable in PvE only though). They deal around the damage of a 100MP skill. Also, when you hit a low HP threshold, they will heal you (40% of max HP) and refill your MP bar (around 300MP). The hp heal is extremely powerful, since there is no dedicated healer class in this game. The game does provide you with a free pet in the early levels, but obviously, it's nowhere as good as the cash shop ones.

And then of course, the crowd favorite:
-Come on in and enchant! Test your luck!
The regular max enchant level is +10 (+11 is through special enchanting events)
Enchantments past +6 have a chance to break your weapon (renders it unequippable; requires $7.50 cash shop "scroll" to unbreak it) or reset it back to 0 (prevented only if you use $1.50 cash shop "ore" to enchant EVERY TIME).
You can get +8 through ingame methods, but the +8 amulet is a rare RNG item, and pretty expensive to buy from other players.
+7 is usually where the average player is at.
You have a 1% chance of enchanting +9 to +10, and 30% chance of breaking. Statistically, it would take you about $400 dollars to make that gap alone.
Difference between +7 and +10 is about 50% more damage.
They will occasionally give out ores OR scrolls (rarely both) during events, that expire after the event is over. Of course, that's to entice you to buy the other to spam "free" enchants.

And inb4 "you can buy everything with ingame currency": economy is so borked up. Unless you live to merchant and/or get lucky with drops, you'd be mindlessly farming at about $1-2's worth of gold per hour.

As for me, I was enjoying the game until a few months back, until I realized the choice to progression was either "farm these boring dungeons for 10 hours" or "drop the $10 from one hour of minimum wage".

Any f2p MMORPG with business sense will strive to make you choose the 2nd option.

That's pretty eye-opening, thanks for taking the time to type this. I'm definitely going to avoid Elsword. Shame, I love the style.

Don't get me wrong, Elsword's not a bad game if you just want to sit down and combo on some monsters. It's actually very fun and addicting in the beginning.

Unfortunately, its payment model falls into the same trap as most other f2p mmorpgs. That said, Elsword's p2w implementation can be called somewhat tame compared to others of its ilk (Perfect World's $Thousands$ for endgame gear anyone?)

Don't get me wrong, Elsword's not a bad game if you just want to sit down and combo on some monsters. It's actually very fun and addicting in the beginning.

Unfortunately, its payment model falls into the same trap as most other f2p mmorpgs. That said, Elsword's p2w implementation can be called somewhat tame compared to others of its ilk (Perfect World's $Thousands$ for endgame gear anyone?)

I enjoyed playing elsword but the stamina turned me off a fair bit, I know there are free stamina weekends but I'm not always available to play on weekends so it didn't really work for me.

Thanks for summarizing their cash shop I always knew the game was p2w but not that bad.. but still the game is popular so they are doing something right ;o

I enjoyed playing elsword but the stamina turned me off a fair bit, I know there are free stamina weekends but I'm not always available to play on weekends so it didn't really work for me.

Thanks for summarizing their cash shop I always knew the game was p2w but not that bad.. but still the game is popular so they are doing something right ;o

Well, the gameplay itself is pretty engaging and rather addicting if you just ignore the p2w aspects. In that aspect, I think the stamina system helps keep the game fresh. The game WILL get stale pretty quickly if you just dungeon on for 3+hours at a time.

Besides, the average player probably just want to get their fix of side-scrolling dungeoning or pvping.
These cash shop advantages only really matter if you "tryhard".

To be somewhat competitive in pve and pvp, you just need:
$8 for the mana necklace,
$9 for the 2nd skill bar
$7 for a skill ring
$1.50 each for your class' skill notes (around 2 or 3)
$20 for a costume set
Optional but helpful
$6 for the pet of your choice (add $5 for auto pickup)

Comes up to ~$50, which is not too much if you spend it over a couple of months (averages to about the price of a subscription). And you're set for that character's life, assuming that you don't really care about changing your fashion, min-maxing or enchanting your weapon. Though if you want to make another character, you'd have to shell over another $50 to start the "basic" foundation...

Also, I guess the art-style just clicks for some people (myself included).